British/Irish Barnaj II Expedition

Upon arrival at their basecamp in the Zanskar valley, this team found very dry conditions, the monsoon seemingly having failed to arrive. However, the very next day, 1-2ft of snow fell at basecamp, with possibly more higher up. The fresh snowfall made acclimatisation heavy going, but over a few days, the whole team rotated up to 5,700m and back to basecamp. Abortive attempts on the east face of Chiring and Barnaj II’s north face followed on the 30 September but, after a couple of days’ rest, Glenn, Seccombe and Johnson set out for what would prove to be a successful attempt on the north face of Barnaj II. The trio climbed to a subsidiary peak, Barnaj II East (6,303m), over three days via a 1,400m route which they dubbed ‘Seracnaphobia’ (ED M5 AI4). Upon reaching this subsidiary summit, they elected not to continue along the ridge to the mountain’s North Summit, reasoning that it would likely take at least three days to complete the traverse and descend. They rappelled their new route on Abalakov threads, leaving no in-situ gear behind.